In their new book "Who Controls the Internet", Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu make a compelling case that the optimistic hope that the internet would erase national boundaries has been replaced by a reality of local control leveraged through governmental pressure on intermediaries, at least in the case of large multinational companies. (Cited from PingSwept)
Are we really in "the beginning of a technological version of the cold war?" (p. 184) I don’t think it is absolutely correct since the conception of cold war is under some objective threatens which may be illustrated superficially with the term of "nuclear terrors". The only analogy may be the seperated world by censorships of governments and/or giant multinational enterprises. Talking the issues of freedom of expression and freedom of religion, the gap may be huge, however, I think, only if the Matrix of Internet really be crushed down by the different domain systems, those censorships may never really filter all since the intellgences and ideas are not merely emerged from the western/eastern world. Further, while we are talking about the protection of private rights, say, copyright, personal privacy and commercial secret, the cold war may be substituted by the hot love scene between west and east … not only because the hegemony of someone, but also because the inherent needs of developing their own cultures.
So, as Ethan Leib said, the book may be a "popular" and "entertaining" one, though I still need to evaluate the same after reading it through.
Besides, Milton Mueller (The author of the wellknown Ruling the Root) think it is a "manifesto for counterrevolution", and John Mathiason suggested it is an "Episode II".
